Have you noticed that sometimes you see some weightless objects floating in the air in front of your eyes? They may resemble small hairs, resembling the shape of small worms, cobwebs or transparent clots.

If you try to look at these objects, they disappear suddenly, but they reappear after you look at something else. They do not interfere with vision, but sometimes can be annoying with their appearance.

When you see one of these "flies", do not hurry to wash your eyes. In fact, this is a fairly frequent phenomenon, scientifically called Muscae volitantes (translated from Latin as "flying flies") or simply "flies" also called Floaters. Actually, these are not insects or anything else that floats in the air, these objects are inside your eye. Although sometimes it may seem that they move independently and change shape, but it is not.

Musca shells are small particles that float inside the vitreous of your eyes, they can be particles of a protein called collagen, red blood cells or small fragments of tissue.
Such particles float in suspension in the transparent substance similar to a gel in the vitreous , these move simultaneously with the movement of the eyes, so they sometimes appear in our field of vision.

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Actually, we practically do not notice much about the Floaters, since the brain simply ignores them, but the closer they are to the retina, the more remarkable they become. This is comparable to the shadow cast by an object on the surface: the closer the object on the surface is, the more clearly the projected shadow becomes.

Floaters become more visible if you see something bright and uniform, for example, a clear sky, a blank monitor screen or a snow covered floor. Due to the homogeneity and high brightness of such backgrounds, flies are easier to see. This is due to the fact that when you look at something bright, the pupils of your eyes narrow and the objects in the vitreous body begin to see each other more clearly.

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However, if you begin to notice an unusually large number of large flies and these started to prevent you from seeing, then this phenomenon may be a sign of a disease that needs to be treated immediately, but as a general rule it is just an optical phenomenon, which manifests itself through normal physiological processes.

And how often do you see the flies?

Thank you for reading.

Sources and references:

• Ya está el listo que todo lo sabe. (2018). muscae volitantes | Available at: https://blogs.20minutos.es/yaestaellistoquetodolosabe/tag/muscae-volitantes/ [Accessed 16 Oct. 2018].

• Guzmán Martínez, G. (2018). Miodesopsias: las manchas flotantes que entorpecen la visión. [online] Psicologiaymente.com. Available at: https://psicologiaymente.com/salud/miodesopsias [Accessed 16 Oct. 2018].

• Es.wikipedia.org. (2018). Miodesopsias. [online] Available at: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miodesopsias [Accessed 16 Oct. 2018].

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